The Flower and the Heart II - The Return of the Ghostbusters
by Nathan Lane-Beatles Luvr
Summary: Five years have passed since the Ghostbusters fought Gozer. They were forcibly disbanded by the city and state of New York. But there's a new big bad in town, and really, who else are you gonna call? Rose, Ray, Peter, Winston, and Egon are back, so It's time to get into your jumpsuits, strap on your proton packs and rev up the Ecto-1. There's something strange in the neighborhood.


**I DON'T OWN GHOSTBUSTERS OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT. I ONLY OWN ROSE.**

**Chapter 1**

"Oh for Christ's sake…"

Rose hissed in pain when the book she was flipping through decided it would be a good idea to slice her finger, giving her a rather nasty paper cut.

"Wonderful," Rose grumbled, sucking on her finger.

"What's wonderful?" Ray asked, poking his head around the corner. Rose shook her head and said, "Nothing. Paper cut."

"Oh," Ray nodded. He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose – Rose didn't really see the point, because within two seconds, they would be back at the bottom again – and went back to cataloging the new books that had just been delivered.

As Rose closed the mean book that cut her and put it back on the shelf, she sighed and started getting lost in her thoughts.

She could hardly believe it had been five years since she was reunited with her brother and his best friends. Five years since she had fallen in love with Ray. Five years since they fought Gozer, Zuul, and Vinz Clortho. Five years since Ray had asked her to marry him.

They had only been dating for about two months when he proposed to her. But that didn't matter to Rose. She said yes right away. The next day, Ray had bought her a beautiful diamond ring with little fire opals adorning either side of the diamond. She sighed with happiness, looking down at the ring that circled around her left ring finger, right in front of the slim, silver wedding band.

Ray must have come up behind her while she was thinking, because he slid his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. Rose covered his hands with her own and smiled at the thicker wedding band that Ray wore on his left hand.

"What are you thinking about?" Ray mumbled in her ear. Rose smiled and said, "Just how much time has gone by so quickly. I was thinking about how it's been five years…five years since everything with Gozer…" Ray stiffened slightly. Thinking how close Rose had come to dying – how close they had all come - that day still haunted him. If he had lost her…he shook his head, clearing those thoughts away. He hadn't lost her…Rose was perfectly fine, safe in his arms.

"Five years since I asked you to marry me," Ray commented. Rose smiled and nodded. They hadn't gotten married right away, of course. For one thing, Peter, Rose's older brother, who had just come to terms with the fact that his little sister and his best friend had fallen in love, had put his foot down firmly.

_Flashback_

"_We're getting married!" Ray announced happily to Peter and the others. They had all been hanging around Ghostbusters HQ, enjoying the peace and quiet that they seldom got anymore. Everyone was still pretty wiped, having fought a Sumerian god only the previous day. Everyone was a little slow to react to what Ray told them, but when Rose held up her left hand and they all noticed the beautiful ring that now rested there, Janine let out a screech of happiness and immediately rushed over to Rose. _

_Janine nearly tackled Rose in her eagerness to hug her and congratulate her. She demanded to see the ring and when Rose showed it to her, she squealed with joy and said, "Congratulations, you two!"_

_Dana, Winston, and Egon all had fairly serene reactions, but it was Peter's reaction that was the most interesting. He wasn't angry or anything; but he did seem to feel like he needed to be the voice of reason here. _

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa," Peter said, waving his hands around wildly. "You're gonna have to give me a minute here. I just OK'd this whole thing and now you're getting married? Look, I'm happy for you guys, really, but you need to slow down. You can be engaged, that's fine…but maybe hold off on the wedding for a while. Don't rush into it."_

_Rose started giggling and Ray threw his arm around her shoulders, chuckling. If Peter had been befuddled before, he was completely bamboozled now. "What?" he asked, confusion twisting his features. "Why are you laughing?"_

"_Peter…we know we've only been dating for two months. We know. We're not going to get married next week. We were planning on being engaged for a while anyway," Ray explained. "We just didn't really see the point in waiting." _

_Peter blinked and then proceeded to look slightly embarrassed. "Oh," he said, stammering a little. "Right…well…good. But hey, I'd better be your best man, pal, okay?"_

_Peter relented and congratulated them ecstatically only after Ray promised that Peter would be his best man._

_Flashback End_

It had been two years to the day that he asked Rose to marry him that they finally got married. It had been the happiest day of his life – they had decided to get married in Central Park. It had been a gorgeous, sunny day…the trees were greener than emeralds and there was no wind at all. It was perfect.

Nothing could have prepared Ray for seeing Rose in her wedding dress. He could have sworn that his heart stopped the moment he saw her walking towards him, arm in arm with her father. Ray was surprised that Rose and Peter managed to contact their parents…he knew that they hadn't gotten on too well in the past, but he supposed that they wouldn't want to miss their only daughter's wedding.

Peter clapped a hand on Ray's shoulder and was smiling broadly when he saw his little sister. Rose was wearing a very simple, sleeveless white dress. It was just above floor length, so it didn't drag on the grass. If there was one thing Ray loved about Rose, it was that she didn't need glitz and glamour to make her happy. She saw the beauty in simple things. In his opinion, Rose – although she was always beautiful to him, no matter what – would not have looked half as radiant in a fancy dress as she did in her actual wedding dress.

Ray honestly felt his heart stop when he laid eyes on his soon-to-be-wife, and his hand flew up to cover his heart. Her (now grown out) dark hair was tied up in an elegant bun, with a few loose strands hanging artfully near her neck. She had very light makeup on, and more than anything, her natural beauty shone through. Just the sight of her, looking so radiant and beautiful, brought tears to his eyes, which he was powerless to stop from falling.

He was just some guy in a tux and she was practically a goddess, striding toward him, her bright blue eyes looking at him like he was her entire universe. How he ever got so lucky as to have Rose fall for him, he would never understand.

When her father gave her away and she stepped forward and looked up at him, he could no longer do anything to stop himself from beaming like an idiot and letting the tears fall. She smiled at him and he saw that she had tears in her eyes too.

He barely heard the Justice of Peace throughout the entire ceremony. He responded when he was asked to, of course, but his attention was completely on his bride. And when the Justice of the Peace pronounced them man and wife, and gave him permission to kiss his new bride…well, you didn't have to tell him twice.

The first kiss they shared as Mr. and Mrs. Stantz was even more wonderful and universe-altering than their very first kiss ever. Because now Ray knew…he knew they were meant to be and he knew that he was her one and only. If someone had told him two years ago that he'd be marrying Rose Venkman, he probably would have tried to perform psychological tests to make sure they weren't crazy.

But here he was, in a tux, his best friends standing behind him, kissing the younger woman that had somehow fallen in love with him and agreed to marry him, surrounded by their friends and family. He still didn't know how _that_ happened. How was it that someone like Rose loved someone like him? It still blew his mind, and he was pretty sure it always would.

Ray was sort of in a dreamy daze as Rose threw her bouquet and Janine caught it. He only half noticed Janine turn her gaze dreamily on Egon, who promptly turned an interesting shade of red. It wasn't until they climbed into the Ecto-1 (even though she had been put mostly out of commission – the Ghostbusters had been forcibly disbanded after the whole Gozer thing) and Rose took his hand in hers and laced their fingers together that he started to come out of his joyous haze.

"Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Stantz…" Rose said thoughtfully. Ray looked at her, a happy smile on his face, as she met his eyes and said, "Finally."

Ray beamed and nodded. "Finally," he said, kissing his wife (oh, how wonderful it felt to be able to think of Rose as his wife) again. Ray pulled away and looked at her, gazing deeply into her light blue eyes. "I love you," he said, deadly serious.

"I love you, too," Rose said, resting her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh. Ray felt his heart nearly explode with all the love he felt for this amazing woman.

**LINE HERE!**

"Can you believe it's been three years already?" Ray said softly, looking at the ring on his wife's finger.

"Mm…three wonderful years," Rose said, smiling happily. She turned around so that they were face to face and she stood on her tip toes to kiss him deeply.

So much had happened in those three years. Peter and Dana had broken up, for one thing, because he wouldn't ask her to marry him. Rose had been on the verge of beating the hell out of her brother when Dana told her why she left him, but she knew that Peter had always been afraid of commitment. Peter, of course, was devastated, but he didn't do anything to get her back.

"She's better off with someone else," Peter had told her. "She deserves someone who…who will marry her and give her children…someone she can grow old with…and that's not me, Rose. As much as I want it to be…I'm not…I'm not the one for her."

Rose had felt very sorry for her brother, but it was his own fault. If he had tried to deal with his fear of commitment and asked Dana to marry him, the two of them would have been married for a few years now, maybe even with children.

But Dana had moved on. She had married a musician – Rose didn't remember what instrument he played – and had a little boy named Oscar. He was such an adorable little baby, but Rose couldn't help thinking that Peter should have been the child's father any time she saw him.

Although the Ghostbusters had been shut down, Egon, Ray, and Rose hadn't evacuated the firehouse. They kept it because why not? Once they finally got it cleaned up again after Walter Peck decided it would be a good idea to turn off the power grid, allowing all the ghosts they had caught to go free, almost destroying the firehouse in the process.

They all had other jobs now. Egon was back at Columbia University, in the Psychology department. He was mainly responsible for running experiments on (unaware) test subjects. Sometimes the experiments could be a little cruel, but Egon himself was not a mean person. He may not have been very good with expressing emotions but he took no happiness in sometimes having to take a lovable puppy away from a little girl or something.

Peter was now the host of a basic cable show, which Rose watched out of sheer fondness and loyalty to her brother. Rose wasn't even sure what the damn thing was about, but she knew it was _bad_. The only reason it was still on the air was because Peter was a former Ghostbuster.

And that was another thing. The Ghostbusters had been slapped with a number of citations for destruction of the city during the Gozer incident. Of course, Walter Peck got away scot-free even though half the destruction of the city was his own fault. Granted, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man did destroy a few buildings and a church, but everything had been rebuilt. Luckily, they had convinced the City of New York to allow the Ghostbusters to stay together long enough to re-catch the ghosts that had escaped due to Peck's sheer stupidity, provided that after the ghosts were caught, they would permanently leave the business of ghost catching.

Now Ray and Rose ran an occult book shop called"Ray's Occult Books" – the name was short and to the point. They were going to call it "Ray and Rose's Occult Books" but it didn't quite flow right, so they cut out Rose's name and just had Ray's. She didn't care too much, to be honest. She loved the book shop, but it didn't matter to her whose name was on the sign.

Aside from running the book shop, Rose and Ray frequently teamed up with Winston for kids' birthday parties. It was kind of a sell-out, in Rose's opinion, but money was money. Besides, occasionally, one of the kids' older siblings would get pretty excited at seeing two or three of the Ghostbusters in person. The kids themselves were too young to really know who they were, because the majority of them were in preschool or kindergarten when they were famous.

Rose understood, but it was still frustrating when some snot-nosed little brat accused them of being 'washed up' or, Rose's personal favorite, 'bullshit'. Some kids actually called what they did – used to do, Rose had to remind herself – bullshit because their close minded parents didn't believe in ghosts.

But whatever, Rose didn't lose sleep over it.

"We have another birthday party today," Ray said. Rose groaned and buried her head into Ray's chest. "I know, I know…I hate them as much as you do…"

"Then why do them? Ray, we make enough with the bookstore. And Winston hates it just as much as we do. We don't need to do this anymore…"

Ray made a noncommittal noise but Rose continued on. "I mean, I know it's nice to be recognized sometimes and feel relevant, but if one more idiot kid tells me I'm washed up, I'm going to kick them straight out a window."

Ray chuckled and said, "I know, sweetheart, I know. We won't do this forever. If you don't want to go, you don't have to…"

"No, no…the lady asked for all three of us specifically. Don't know why she wanted all three of us, but whatever, fine, I'll do it."

"Hey," Ray said softly. "Babe, look at me."

Rose leaned back and looked up at Ray. "Listen," he said, his hands framing her jaw. "I know you hate doing these birthday parties. And I promise you, someday soon, we won't do them anymore."

"You keep saying that, but when, Ray? I love the book shop, Ray…I don't want to deal with anymore idiotic kids. I swear, if any of our children turn out like they do, I will need to be checked into an insane asylum."

Ray beamed at the thought of being a father, and Rose couldn't help but smile back. They hadn't really been trying to get pregnant, but the desire was still there. They both wanted to be parents, and Rose knew – she just knew – that one day, they would have kids.

"If our kids are anything like them," Ray remarked, smirking slightly, "we'll both have to be checked into an insane asylum."

"And then Peter will have to take care of them," Rose commented dryly. Ray blinked and thought about it for a second.

"We cannot let our children be like those children," he said seriously, nodding solemnly. Rose laughed and Ray smiled. He loved making her laugh.

"Hey, lovebirds."

Ray and Rose turned to look at the door, which Winston had just walked through. "Are you ready to party?" he asked, trying and failing to sound enthusiastic.

"Oh yeah," Rose remarked, sarcasm oozing from her words. "Woohoo."

Winston chuckled and held out the much-loved (and much-missed) jumpsuits to Ray and Rose. Rose pulled hers on and zipped it up, noticing that the name patch on the left still said _Venkman _on it. Seeing as she and Ray hadn't gotten married until after the Ghostbusters were shut down, there had never been any reason to change it so that it said _Stantz _instead.

She supposed it didn't really matter. It wasn't like Ghostbusters, Inc. was getting that ban lifted anytime soon. Ray pulled his on over his usual black t-shirt and jeans and zipped it up. The old suits still fit like a glove, luckily. It would have just been about ten times more embarrassing if the suits didn't fit right.

"Let's get this nightmare over with, please," Rose grumbled. Ray and Winston nodded and they left the book shop. Ray locked the door behind him and climbed into the Ecto-1. Ray climbed into the driver's seat, Winston took shotgun, and Rose got in back.

Thankfully, Ray's driving had improved somewhat since the Ghostbusters first got started, but not by much. It was enough that she wasn't banging her skull against Egon's anymore…even though Egon hadn't set foot in the Ecto-1 ever since the massive lawsuit and trial that shut them down.

Rose, more than anything, missed the old days. She missed being a Ghostbuster – a _real _Ghostbuster, not this 'pretend and entertain the kiddies' crap. She loved her life, as it was, but she just wished she didn't have to sacrifice what she loved doing at the same time.

She shook her head and tried to put a smile on her face. If Ray saw she was upset, he would get upset also, and nothing hurt her more than to see Ray upset, or sad. He had such a heartwarming smile and Rose never wanted to see it leave his face.

However, Ray must have noticed that Rose was a little blue, because he flicked on the lights and siren, which started blaring immediately. It brought a sentimental smile to Rose's face, which in turn brought a jolly grin to Ray's.

He knew she missed being a Ghostbuster – hell, he missed it, too…they all did – but there was nothing he could do on that front. He didn't have a magic wand that he could wave and make it so that the Ghostbusters could continue their work in peace. He wished he did, but he didn't. So, he tried his hardest to keep a smile on Rose's face. And normally, she was smiling. But he knew it was hard to dress up like a Ghostbuster again, put on a proton pack, and not be able to actually bust ghosts…

It was extremely hard…almost impossibly hard. But they had to keep soldiering on, with the hope that one day, New York would need the Ghostbusters again. And when they did – _if _they did – the Ghostbusters would be there.

There were only two things that Ray was completely sure of in this world and that was one of them. He just wished that day would hurry up and get there already.

* * *

**_And there we have it, folks. The first chapter of The Flower and the Heart II. I know it's been a long time coming - it's almost been a year since I finished The Flower and the Heart. I hope you haven't given up on me yet! Well, anyway, please review it and tell me what you liked/disliked. As always, I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but I promise it won't be too long. _**


End file.
